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Tomy
| type = Public | foundation = March 1, 2006 (Former Tomy, 1924; Takara, 1955) | location = 7-9-10, Tateishi, Katsushika, Tokyo, Japan | key_people = Kantaro Tomiyama (President and CEO) | num_employees = 667 (As of March 31, 2011)Takaratomy website | industry = Toys, Video games, Baby & Pre-school products, Children's Apparel | products = Details | revenue = ¥159,490 million (FY 2010–2011) | operating_income = ¥10,327 million (FY 2010–2011) | net_income = ¥8,929 million (FY 2010–2011) | assets = ¥94,597 million (FY 2010–2011) | equity = ¥48,744 million (FY 2010–2011) | subsid = Tatsunoko Production Tomytec | homepage = Tomy Global Japan United Kingdom France Germany Benelux FR Benelux NL United States Hong Kong Thailand }} is a Japanese toy, children's merchandise and entertainment company created from the March 2006 merger of two companies: Tomy (founded in 1924 as Tomiyama, changing the name to Tomy in 1963 ) and long-time rival, Takara (founded in 1955). Merged on 1 March 2006, the company has its headquarters in Katsushika, Tokyo."Corporate Information." Takara Tomy. Retrieved on March 16, 2010. History and corporate name The decision to use the Tomy name in English, yet the Takara-Tomy name in Japanese, was made for pragmatic reasons. Tomy has built considerable brand recognition internationally, particularly in the area of infant and preschool products, where brand trust is very important. On the other hand, most of Takara's international hit products (Microman, Transformers, Battle Beasts, Beyblade, B-Daman, et al.) have been sold and branded by other companies, most notably, Hasbro. Therefore, going through the costly process of registering and or changing the company name in all the countries where Tomy does business would have been expensive and unproductive. Thus, with the merged company's international subsidiaries continuing to use the Tomy name, it seemed appropriate to keep a domestic English name which matched that of the international subsidiaries. Editorial policies of many Western (English language) business publications is to ignore "merger" declarations and declare one company to be bought by another, often by splitting hairs over the number of board members, etc. Therefore, in much of the English media, the Takara-Tomy merger was characterized as a "take-over" of Takara by Tomy. This assumption was made easier by the adoption of only the Tomy name in English. It is true that several years of losses had put Takara in a financially weakened state at the time of the merger. On the other hand, Takara did in fact have significantly higher sales than Tomy for three years preceding the merger. Yet it is common knowledge that, over the years, the management of Takara and Tomy, which were located less than a kilometer apart in Tokyo and had respectfully competed with each other as they grew side-by-side into world-class toy companies, had discussed merging several times, including times when Takara appeared stronger. Thus, ultimately, philosophically, culturally and legally under Japanese corporate law, the companies agreed to merge on an equal basis. There has been much post-merger speculation on the control of brands such as Transformers now being with Tomy vs. Takara. Much of this arises due to the new use of the English "TOMY" copyright on all packaging, including former Takara brands shipped by Hasbro. This is simply the natural result of the practical decision to use only the Tomy name in English. In fact, internally, where 99% of the employees are Japanese and speak mainly Japanese, there is only one company, known in Japanese as "Takara-Tomy," and almost all internal departments have a healthy mix of management from both former companies. The fact that the English name is "Tomy" bears little relevance for most employees. In Japan, Takara-Tomy continues to use the former Tomy and Takara names as distinct brand names on toy lines which originated in each company, but most new toy lines or stand-alone products carry the new Takara-Tomy brand. Staple toy lines from each company are continuing, in many cases gaining synergy from the co-marketing of each other's properties. This merger gave the combined company near parity in domestic (Japan) toy market share to domestic rival Bandai. Takara purchased a majority stake in Tatsunoko Production in June 2005. The studio then became a complete subsidiary of Takara Tomy, following the March 2006 merger.Takara acquires animation studio | The Japan Times Online In 2006, Tomy UK launched a website where consumers can buy directly from Tomy's catalogue online.Tomy: Official Tomy UK Site In early 2011, Takara Tomy acquired RC2 and its sub-brand, Learning Curve, which included The First Years, Lamaze, and Compass. Products The merged company has manufactured a broad range of products based on its own properties which include, from the Tomy side, Tomica, Plarail, Zoids, Idaten Jump, Nohohon Zoku Hidamari no Tami (aka Sunshine Buddies) and Tomy branded baby care products such as baby monitors, carriers etc.; and from the Takara side, there are Space Pets, Choro-Q (aka Penny Racers), Transformers, B-Daman, Licca-chan, Koeda-chan (aka Treena) and Microman (aka Micronauts). The merged TOMY also produces and/or sells a wide variety of toy and game brands under license, such as Thomas & Friends, Disney, Pokémon, Naruto, The Game of Life (aka Jinsei Game), Rockman (aka Megaman), Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, Kirarin Revolution, Sugar Bunnies and Animal Crossing. Tomy's rights to these licenses vary by region. One of the first examples of product synergy for the merged company was the combining of Takara's Jinsei Game (Game of Life) license and Tomy's Pokémon license to produce a Pokémon Jinsei Game. Tomy UK was founded in 1982 for sale and distribution of Tomy products in Europe, and has brought toys such as Zoids and a variety of games like Pop-up Pirate to the West with great success. Tomy UK's slogan has traditionally been "Trust Tomy". Tomy sells many products worldwide, including baby and pre-school toys, baby monitors, mechanical and electronic games, consumer electronics, children's arts and crafts products, and a vast range of toys suited to girls or boys. They make a large selection of Disney, Pokémon and Thomas the Tank Engine merchandise. They also publish videogames in Japan (mostly based on Zoids and Naruto anime series), and are responsible for the distribution of some Hasbro products in Japan, such as Play-Doh, Jenga and Monopoly. List of notable products was a mechanical Pong handheld released in the '70s.]] * AquaDraw * Armatron * Atollo – construction toy * Atomic Pinball – miniature pinball table * Bankman * Beyblade – metal top fighting game * Big Loader – Construction Set and variants * Bit Char-G – micro radio-controlled cars * Bit Racer – micro battery-operated slot cars * Blip (game) – mechanical Pong-type handheld game * Blythe * Boggle Flash * CAUL (Car Action Units Line) – radio-controlled vehiclesTakara Tomy CAUL * Caveman – handheld electronic game * Cella sticker machine * Chatty Tom （英会語フレンドチャティートム） – a talking robot bear designed to help Japanese people learn English, available with different cartridges for children and adults. The adult cartridge has a vocabulary of 650 conversational phrases. * Choro-Q – micro toy cars * Chuggington * Clock-Chan * Clockman * Compass * Crossbows and Catapults * Cyborg Kuro-chan – bendable figures * Dacky * Disney Motors * Disney Tomica * Duel Masters Trading Card Game * Fashion Plates * The First Years * Flip Flap – solar-powered plant * Furby * Gacha gashapon – vending machines (distributed by Tomy Yujin Corp. (TYC) in the US and Tomy Yujin Europe (TYE) in Europe) * Giga Pudding – a communally oriented pudding that jiggles and is topped by caramel sauce.タカラトミー ギガプリン * Gripidee Gravidee – motorized space cards on a track popular in the 60s and 70s * Guitar Rockstar * Healing Labo Evizo * Hide 'n' Squeak Eggs * Hietama-Chan * Insect Cage Gallery * Inazuma Eleven * i-SOBOTOmnibot 17μ: i-SOBOT Official global website * Jenga * Jenny * Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Flame Rumble – a series of fighting games based on the manga/anime for the Nintendo DS * Lis'me Pod (リスミーポッド) – girls' digital audio player * Kingdom Hearts Trading Card Game * Koeda-Chan * Lamaze * Licca * Manekko Pi-Chan * Metal Fight Beyblade – Metal Top Fighting Game * Metal Fight Beyblade 4D – Metal Top Fighting Game * Metal Fight Beyblade Zero-G – Metal Top Fighting Game * Micro Aqua – miniature aquarium * Micropets * My DoItAll – multi-use "game" (more of a gizmo than a game) for Nintendo DS * Naruto - Game series * Nohohon Zoku Hidamari no Tami (ひだまりの民 sunny people) (sold outside Japan as "Sunshine Buddies") and Hanauta no Tami (humming people) – solar-powered perpetual motion ornamental toys which have a cult following * Noriben * Omnibot – line of toy robots * Omnibot BattroBorg 20 * Pachuppa – finger puppets * PaPiPuPe Puppies * Peek-a-Pooh * Plarail (プラレール) – plastic electric train set system (called "Tomica World" outside Japan) * Plarail Advance * Pokémon Screen Cleaners * Pop-up Pirate (黒ひげ危機一発 Kurohige-Kikiippatsu) * Pretty Rhythm * Q-steer – micro radio-controlled cars based on Choro-QTakara Tomy Q-Steer * Rummikub * Screwball Scramble * Smart-han * Smife (a portmanteau of "smile" and "life") – a range of novelty items or gifts * Starriors * Switch 16 * Thomas and Friends: used TOMY Blue track since the 1990s stop production in 2005 to make way for the Brown TrackMaster track. Gauge is HO * Tomica （トミカ）die-cast – model vehicles * Tomix – the model railway brand of Tomytec, a subsidiary of Takara Tomy * Tomy AFX – slot cars * Tomy Pocketmate * Tomy Super Cup Football * Tomy Tutor – home computer * Tomytronic – 3D handheld game series * Transformers (トランスフォーマー - Toransufōmā) * Tron – action figures and vehicles based on the Disney film * Uzumajin – trading card game * Walkabout wireless baby monitors * Wind Ups – Original Plastic White Knob Wind Up Toys * Xiaostyle – digital still cameras * Zoids （ゾイド） References External links *Tomy Japan corporate website (Limited corporate English content) *Tomy UK corporate website *Tomy USA corporate website *Tomy France corporate website *Tomy Germany corporate website Category:Companies based in Tokyo Category:Video game companies of Japan Category:Toy train manufacturers Category:Takara Tomy Category:Toy companies of Japan Category:Katsushika, Tokyo Category:Companies established in 2006 Category:2006 establishments in Japan